Diversity and Inclusion at Sanctuary Care

At Sanctuary Care, we are committed to breaking down any negative stigma associated with mental ill health and have been working hard to encourage open and honest conversations, creating happy and healthy teams in the process. 

Our Sanctuary care home and head office managers have attended interactive workshops with an external wellbeing specialist and positive psychologist who has been cultivating confident conversations about mental health here for nearly two years. These workshops equip line managers with the skills and confidence to talk about mental health and wellbeing, spot the signs when team members are struggling, know how to signpost them to extra support and all while taking care of themselves and their own wellbeing. 

We have also trained over 200 Mental Health First Aiders across our care homes and head office teams. The engagement with the programme has been so positive with volunteers from all kinds of roles and levels within the organisation, eager to come forward, learn more and support their colleagues. We are now building upon this: conducting refresher training, recommending additional voluntary learning and carving out space for MHFA’s to come together and share their experiences, with dedicated internal accredited trainers leading the way. 

Most recently, we have conducted a targeted pilot into self-compassion. Around 40 volunteers from a range of management and supportive roles across Sanctuary Care came together in small groups to participate in several in-depth workshops. Self-compassion is a broad topic but in summary includes mindfulness skills to adapt when we’re stressed or struggling, self-kindness and understanding – no more harsh self-judgement, and connectedness, remembering we are not alone. The small groups are still in the depths of the pilot, with great initial feedback, and we look forward to learning more about the overall impact on the delegates professional and personal lives in the coming months. 

Sanctuary have delivered group wide webinars on everything from eating healthily, to the menopause, from addiction to financial wellbeing, planning and mortgages. We are constantly evolving our wellbeing offer and inviting teams to tell us what they need – no topic is off limits.

At Sanctuary Care, we recognise our legal obligations, as employers, to ensure that employees experiencing impactful menopause symptoms are supported in the workplace. Not only is the employee protected from discrimination, but we are happy to openly discuss reasonable adjustments to support the individual to remain active and fulfilled in the workplace. 

Some of the workplace adjustments we’ve taken to support team members include: 

• Relaxing the uniform policy. 
• Providing adequate breaks in a suitable space with privacy, where possible. 
• Provide a fan or allow the person to work in cooler areas of the workplace, where possible. 
• Allow flexibility to work location, or shift patterns – when possible, given the nature of their role. 
• Record menopause related absences separately, and clearly. 

Most importantly, we are creating a culture of openness around menopause by being willing to engage in conversation about it, without judgement and with the intention of supporting the individual with their specific set of symptoms. 

What is Sanctuary doing to help?

• We have signed the #MenopauseWorkplacePledge – which means we are committed to supporting women to continue to do their best, and be their best, whilst at work. That everyone feels confident to discuss menopause, and can ask for help when they need to. 
• We have a Learn in 10 – Better Understanding the Menopause – which is a super quick self-learning module that everyone can access, or teams can use as needed.
• We have links to videos and quizzes for teams to use when introducing the topic.
• We’ve previously hosted webinars with leading charity in this area, Henpicked – and still proudly signpost colleagues to their exceptional support packs.  
• Our Employee Advice Service is available for all kinds of advice and counselling. 

We continue to learn and do more in this area, and are open to feedback and suggestions from all colleagues who may be going through the menopause and perimenopause or those supporting people going through it. 

Sanctuary is registered with the Government as an organisation that is committed to Disability Confident employment (previously known as the Two Ticks Scheme). 

As a Disability Confident employer, we recognise that many disabled people will have the skills, talents and experience that we are looking for. We are working to ensure that disabled people and those with long term health conditions have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations, here at Sanctuary Care.

This means, that we’ll invite you to request reasonable adjustments when applying to work with us. Whether they be needed in order to level the playing field at interview, or within the role itself – if we can accommodate it safely, we will most certainly explore that with you. 

Please remember, as a Disability Confident employer we are committed to interviewing anyone​ declaring a disability who meets the minimum role requirements. 

Once working with us, you’ll find your manager and surrounding team to be supportive, with a tailored adjustments plan in place if appropriate. And you could choose to join our staff network, The Disability Network. Already this, the newest of our staff networks, has had a huge impact on colleagues – being supportive and making practical improvements to working lives. Hear it from a member directly:

“When I joined the Disability Network, I wasn’t sure what to expect, or really how I could help best as a member of the committee. However, within a few weeks of joining, I can honestly say I’ve met the most remarkable, engaged and supportive people. It’s been an inspiring experience, and so reassuring to know that I have the ear of a group of people within my organisation who are experiencing similar illnesses and day to day struggles. It’s an incredible group to be a part of.” – Rosie Pryce

Formed by members of staff coming together with a shared interest in inclusion, our four Staff Networks provide invaluable support to colleagues and insight to the organisation.

They also offer different perspectives – from the Parent Network to PRISM, our LGBTQIA+ network, REN, which focuses on issues around race equality and the Disability Network. Each network is fostering a community and a safe space for colleagues, hosting events both celebratory and educational and feeding into real cultural change, making tangible improvements to working lives at Sanctuary. 

All staff networks welcome allies – people who don’t necessarily share the protected characteristic represented by the network themselves, but who actively support those who do. We are always listening to and always learning from different groups of staff. 

All colleagues are inviting to join and get involved at whatever level they choose. 

By its nature, work within a Care Home can be great for parents, or people with other dependents or caring responsibilities. Not only are you most likely already well equipped with some of the essential practical skills and empathy, but the nature of shift work can mean that it works well around other responsibilities. And if shift work isn’t for you, there are many other types of roles and options such as bank contracts that might do the trick. 

Sanctuary Care pride themselves on being family friendly, and here are some of the ways that we show it: 

• The incoming upgrades to flexible working legislation, which take effect in April 2024, were adopted early at Sanctuary. This mean, we made the right to request flexible working a day one right, before we needed to. We are open minded and ready to discuss how you can make work a fulfilling part of your life, alongside your other responsibilities. 
• We’ve listened to parents-to-be and acknowledged some of the challenges that this group are facing. We have special policy arrangements in place for those that suffer miscarriage or those that are going through fertility treatment. 
• For more specialist and management roles, we offer enhanced maternity pay, adoption pay or shared parental leave pay* (*qualifying conditions apply and select contract types only). 
• We have a dedicated staff network – the Parent Network – where parents can find community, support, parenting resources and advice. Here is a quote from a member:
  • “Parenting is never easy but being part of the Parent Network, those challenges don’t seem so hard. There are plenty of other parents in the network who will have a nugget of wisdom or two to help. I’ve found it feels so much more personal than asking the other parents in your phone or on social media as we’re all working for the same company and just a Teams call away.” –  Lindsey Sedgwick
• And finally, we just understand that a person is a whole person, and not just an employee. We want you to bring your whole self to work, we  are open to hearing about your challenges and trouble shooting collaboratively with you how we can best support you in work. 

Sanctuary Care are committed to inclusively recruiting from a wide pool of talent, to ensure a diverse workforce and therefore the best – most enriched – quality of care we can offer. So in pursuit of that goal Sanctuary commissioned inclusion specialists, Equal Approach, to conduct a review of our recruitment and onboarding processes and from that report, we can plan meaningful improvements. Here are the highlights, and what we are doing next on our Inclusive Recruitment journey: 

What is going well? 

• Sanctuary has a ‘D&I Dashboard’ – which is usable data about our starters, leavers and internal promotions that allows us to measure our starting position and the effect of any improvements that we make. We are taking data seriously and are planning to do more. 
• The report highlighted that colleagues at Sanctuary felt respected, and that this is an inclusive environment to work in.
• Feedback suggested that we had made great strides with our approach to flexibility in recent years.  
• Care’s latest recruitment advertising activity has been refreshing, modern and effective at capturing the imagination of a wide pool of talent.  

What are we focussing on in 2024?

• Evolving our use of data further, we’d like to start understanding more about our candidates, capturing data earlier so that we can ensure inclusive recruiting at every step. 
• We will be continuing to enhance our reward and recognition mechanisms to ensure that colleagues know how impactful their contribution really is. 
• We want to explore flexibility further – what do people need and want, and how might we support this in all of the different kinds of roles we have. 
• We will be reviewing the process of sifting CVs to ensure that this is being managed consistently and inclusively. 
• Comprehensive training for recruiting managers focussed on inclusivity, managing bias and making adjustments confidently.